The present techniques relate to the field of methods for producing articles of manufacture, such as additive manufacturing methods.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to aspects of art that may be related to aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Many of the products and goods that we use today, from simple to complex, are ultimately produced from basic materials such as polymers, ceramics, metals, and the like. Even certain advanced materials developed through cutting edge research include specific forms of these materials. Currently, there are a number of ways to use these different types of materials to produce useful items. As an example, polyolefins, a general class of polymers, are used for retail and pharmaceutical packaging (such as display bags, bottles, and medication containers), food and beverage packaging (such as juice and soda bottles), household and industrial containers (such as pails, drums and boxes), household items (such as appliances, furniture, carpeting, and toys), automobile components, fluid, gas and electrical conduction products (such as cable wrap, pipes, and conduits), and various other industrial and consumer products.
As another example, ceramics and metals may be, as appropriate, brazed, drawn, melted, pressed, soldered, sintered, welded, vapor deposited, and so forth, using certain specialized techniques and equipment to produce different types of metallic or ceramic items. Such ceramic or metallic items may range from simple articles such as floor tiles or conductive wires to more advanced articles of manufacture such as semiconductor devices.
In the examples set forth above, consumer products are produced on an industrial scale using manufacturing systems having specialized equipment configured to mass produce the products. For example, a mold may be filled with molten polymer to produce cups, a blow molding device may be used to produce bottles for drinks, and specific types of dies may be used to draw wire using molten or softened metals. Unfortunately, the specialized equipment that is used to produce these articles of manufacture on a large scale generally represent a very large capital investment on the part of the manufacturer. Furthermore, the cost associated with producing articles of manufacture does not end at the production site. Rather, such articles must be packaged and transported to a customer, which may use the articles as-is, or may subject them to further manufacturing processes.
In settings where mass production is not necessarily an issue, other types of equipment may use one or a combination of the materials noted above to produce specific items, such as prototypes. As an example, certain manufacturing systems may produce such items using a process that involves depositing a manufacturing material on a substrate, and causing the manufacturing material to combine with the substrate in a layer-by-layer process. The substrate may be the same as or different than the manufacturing material. Such a process may be best analogized to printing, where a device may be used in a similar manner to a print head by concurrently delivering a small amount of the material onto a substrate, and causing the small amount of material to combine with the substrate by providing sufficient energy to the material to cause it to melt, react, or the like. These techniques are commonly referred to as “3D printing.”
While capable of producing three-dimensional constructs, 3D printing processes generally take several hours to complete. For example, the print head must print each layer of the article in a repeating process in which one layer is printed on top of another, and so on, as different portions of the article are laid on top of one another. Accordingly, while capable of producing unique items, such techniques do not generally have the capability to meet the requirements of settings in which an item may be desired within a few minutes, rather than a few hours. This relatively low throughput has limited the acceptance of 3D printing as a viable commercial technique for producing consumer goods.
In view of the present limitations associated with the current state of the manufacturing methods noted above, it is now recognized that it may be desirable to design systems that are capable of producing different types of articles of manufacture, but in a more expedient manner. Specifically, it is now recognized that it may be desirable to enable individual articles of manufacture to be designed in a similar manner to 3D printing while forming the articles with the speed associated with manufacturing devices used on a commercial scale.